Bennett 21 Months

My growing boy is now 21 months old.  It is so exciting to see how his personality develops.  He is really easy going and so much fun.  We have not been up to much since this is Kevin's busy time at work.  We took Bennett to McWane Center one Saturday since it had been cold and rainy forever and needed to get out of the house.  We got lucky that CraneWorks had their equipment there on exhibit.  Bennett is so into trucks and equipment.  I have no idea how he developed this fascination.  I wanted to take him inside the fire truck, but he did not want to do it.  Here are a few pictures from the last few months.

Fun at McWane 

Finally a day at the park 

Hide-and-seek

Showers for Anna Kate

We have had two showers for Anna Kate.  My coworkers threw AK a diaper shower at work.  I was overwhelmed with the car load of diapers I received.  Yes, my SUV was completely full of diapers.  I cannot imagine that AK and Bennett can go through all those diapers, but I am sure they will. 

And as if that was not enough, my friends (Bible Study Girls) threw AK a shower.  It was so pretty.  The flowers, decorations, and food were all centered around a China theme.  We received so many nice things.  It is an understatement to say how blessed we are to have such good friends. 

I had a lot of fun getting to go through the gifts and organize AK's room.  Girl stuff is a whole different world than little boy stuff.  For Bennett, you have pjs, pants, church shirts, and play shirts.  Not the case for little girls.  You have dresses, leggings, shirts, pjs, pants, hair bows, etc.  When I was putting all her gifts up, I told Kevin that I think she has so much that she will not wear anything twice. 

We really appreciate everything everyone has done to help us get ready to bring Anna Kate home.

My Bible Study Girls

Adoption Update

I have been good about updating the timeline, but have not had time to actually write what has been going on.  My last post stated we received our I800A approval.  Since then, we filed our I800.  While waiting on it to be approved, we submitted our visa applications.  We used There's Always Hope as our carrier service.  Everything went smoothly with it.  I appreciate Denise's patience with all my questions. 

Once our I800 was approved, I had to contact the National Visa Center (NVC) to ensure our immigration paperwork had reached the US Consulate in Guangzhou.  After holding for 20 minutes, I was able to confirm that our paperwork had arrived.  Although they will mail me a letter to confirm this, we were told to ask them to email us a pdf of the letter so we could get our DS230 submitted.  The lady I spoke with would not email anything to me.  Kevin tried and was told they would.  After a few days with no email, we received the mailed letter. 

Then our DS230 (daughter's visa application) was mailed and this along with all our other paperwork was submitted to US Consulate.  From this, we received our Article 5 which is sent to CCCWA.  This is used to issue us our travel approval. 

That brings us to today.  Today, we received our travel approval.  We were given two options of when to travel.  I had been hoping that it would be as soon as mid April, but since all the paperwork was tracking at the later time frame it was looking like it would be early May.  Well, we will be traveling mid April to go get Anna Kate. 

We are excited, nervous, overwhelmed, and nervous all at the same time.  I had been working this past week to compile a list of what we needed to take.  I emailed and talked to a few friends who had gone through this and searched online.  I was not expecting what I found.  Oh my how much medicine, food, and supplies are needed.  Clothes not a necessity.  I don't want to see what that Target bill ends up being.   

I have received numerous questions about the 100 wishes quilt.  We will accept squares until April 30th.  We should be back from China then and I can start putting it together.  It has meant a lot to us for those of you who have already submitted your squares.  I am excited to see it all put together and be reminded of all the prayers and support that each square represents.